Plateau Mont-Royal

The Plateau is Montreal's most characterful neighbourhood — a dense grid of tree-lined streets, colourful row houses with exterior staircases, independent shops, and a café culture that rivals any European city. The exterior staircases — wrought-iron spirals climbing the facades of two and three-storey homes — are the neighbourhood's architectural signature, a practical solution to Montreal's narrow lot sizes that has become as iconic as San Francisco's painted ladies or Brooklyn's brownstones.

Boulevard Saint-Laurent ('The Main') is the historic dividing line between English and French Montreal, and the Plateau straddles both linguistic communities with the bilingual ease that defines the city. The food scene is extraordinary: smoked meat at Schwartz's (open since 1928 and perpetually lined up), bagels at St-Viateur or Fairmount (Montreal bagels are smaller, sweeter, and wood-oven baked, and the rivalry between these two shops is the city's longest-running food argument), poutine at La Banquise (open 24 hours, with 30 variations), and the BYO restaurants on Duluth and Rachel streets that let you bring your own wine to meals that would cost three times more in New York.

The neighbourhood's bohemian reputation dates to the 1980s and 90s, when cheap rents attracted artists, musicians, and writers who gave the Plateau its creative identity. Rents have risen since, but the independent bookshops, record stores, vintage clothing shops, and the general refusal to become a chain-store district keep the character intact. Parc La Fontaine, the Plateau's main green space, fills with picnicking families, pétanque players, and the annual Shakespeare-in-the-Park performances every summer.